This is a good place to leave your notes, ideas, requests, questions and link offers if you don't feel like emailing. If you do feel like emailing, the address I check daily is vedrashko(at)hotmail.I have hidden a few old comments to which I have already replied either on the main blog or personally by email because the long URLs in them wouldn't wrap and screwed up the layout. They will be brought back once I figure out how to fix it.

74 comments:

Tried to contact you via hotmail, but it got bounced back. Would love to learn more about your program at MIT and see if there are ways for us to work together. We have set up a Brand Experience Lab in NYC to also explore new tools for engaging an audience and would love to give you a tour if you’re ever in NYC. Contact me via e-mail, david(at)brandexperiencelab.org. Thanks! David

I've been a Sirius subscriber for over two years now and the whole time they have offered their music channels free of charge on the Web to subscribers. (I realize that XM is offering certain channels without subscriptions but I'm sure the emphasis is placed on the paid model.) Sirius' Web access was one of my deciding factors in choosing Sirius over XM - I'm only in my car for a short time each day but I'm sitting at my desk much longer!

Out of curiosity...why do you not have comments on individual entries but allow comments here?

While your blog is interesting, advertising is stupid, ugly, annoying, idiotic, asinine, and completely voluntary. I see no reason why I should watch or listen to any advertisement made, because there's no reason for me to be; I signed no contract that I would, so I'm not required to.

My name is Audian Paxson, I work at Iconix. Just FYI - we'll have support for MSN Hotmail in about a week and three more major programs/services right around the corner.

I'm surprised that you didn't receive a confirmation email from us, thats been working rock solid ever since we started beta. Send me a note to audian.paxson(at)iconix.com and I'd be glad to personally help you out! We've had great feedback from beta and early downloaders and I'd like for you to have the same experience!

Hi well thank you for all the hits I get from being on your list!! I am Meg from http://www.dollarpixel.com and I think mine is unique because...it's just got not a single bit of php in it because I don't know any, and my brother won't help!!! Drat those economics majors!!I'm a architecture student in Oregonand want to use funds I make from my site to build a house that will withstand tsumani and hurricane. Yes, we, some brainy friends and I have come up with some ideas for a submersible house. So if you don't purchase pixels, would you please use some of the affliate banners I included on my site? xoxo Meg

I used this method of advertising back in the early 80's. The place was a nightclub and we used a xeroxed "half of a fifty dollar bill. On the other half was the cut and pasted ad, folded under the facing 50. We would drop these things,"folded", all over the club, in the bathrooms, in the parking lot. It was a good way to promote a slow night that was being reserved for a special promotion or theme night. The only problem we had was, some customers would put them under a finished drink to make it look like a fifty dollar tip, folded in half, for the bartender.

I used this method of advertising back in the early 80's. The place was a nightclub and we used a xeroxed "half of a fifty dollar bill. On the other half was the cut and pasted ad, folded under the facing 50. We would drop these things,"folded", all over the club, in the bathrooms, in the parking lot. It was a good way to promote a slow night that was being reserved for a special promotion or theme night. The only problem we had was, some customers would put them under a finished drink to make it look like a fifty dollar tip, folded in half, for the bartender.

Ilya, Great blog and content. We would be interested to hear what you think about the niche advertising concept offered by porn pixels. To us it seems, million pixel sites can't keep it up, since they don't offer adult pixels. This is a new, visually compelling way to market and drive new traffic, hence bestpornpixelsonline.com rages hard on.

I've been waiting for rooftop ads to appear. Unfortunately, the Target example photo doesn't count. That Target is very near Chicago O'Hare. That ad was intended for airplane passengers. Off the top of my head I can think of two other such ads, both near San Jose (SJC). Ads specifically intended for satellite might exist, but I've not yet heard of one.

Keep up the good work! I enjoy your posts and feel that you are typically way ahead of times with your findings & ideas.

I found this new product called "ShelfAds" in a adage blurb this morning. Have you ever featured it (See: http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47640 )? If not it might be worth a little research, I think it would interest your readers!!

I thought that you and your readers would like the info on ShelfAds. It could grow to be a useful new medium for marketers looking to standout in a cluttered world. Here’s another idea and new product with potential. Sacramento, Calif.-based Smart Sign Media provides electronic signs for displays at the Las Vegas Convention Center and New York's Times Square. They offer a product called Smar Trak RMS that enables outdoor advertisers to capture, real-time demographic information on motorists passing their signs. The sensors installed in their digital video advertising panels monitor the passive signals emitted by the FM radios and when the data is commingled with a separate Media Audit database, it provides detailed an instantaneous demographic and purchasing info.

Recently the company signed into a partnership with Simon Brand Ventures to provide outdoor digital signage to many of Simon Malls' 300 shopping centers across the United States. The deal will provide exterior signs strategically situated at major thoroughfares adjacent to the malls. The video and LED panels include the RMS technology and will adjust advertising messages to specific consumer demographics. In the near-term future Smart Sign states that the network will also enable consumers to interact with advertisers to receive promotional offers and coupons via mobile phones.

For supposedly smart MIT types you guys sure don't know how keywords are bought and how advertisers secure positioning on sponsored websites. GM's big marketing coup steered less than 50 people for a few hours to their site following the SuperBowl, most of them from 4 buildings in downtown Detroit (where GM HQ is). BFD

This is what playing football should look like!Nike's going insane with it's new campaign for the World Cup 2006, inGermany. Check out this commercial, first of eigth! The next vids should beeven better.

http://www.nk6.com.br/jogabonito

By the way, 'Joga Bonito' means Play Beautiful in Portuguese (brazilian)...

Hey, I've spoken with you in the past. I am a science and technology freelance writer and often my stories deal with advertising. I had one come out today that I thought you might find interesting. It just goes to show that advertising does need to evolve if it wants to stay relevant.

I just want to inform you on a little mistake I've read in your Sonic Branding Post (http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2006/06/sonic-branding.html). I'm quite sure that the T-Mobile Acoustic Logo wasn't developed by Sonicsista. It was developed by Chris McHale from McHaleIP (New York) with the support of Interbrand Zintzmeyer&Lux in Cologne, Germany. What I don't know is, how far Lisa Lamb, who was at Interbrand London at this time, was involved in the project.

You amazed me in 2006 with your epic branded video for the Sony Bravia, when you dumped 200,000 bouncing balls down the treacherously steep hills of San Francisco. The pairing of the Jose Gonzalez cover of “Heartbeats” for the music was absolutely superb.

Now, oh my dear Sony Bravia, now, you have truly brought me into a sorrow. After months of anticipation, you gave us this ad.

Not only have you failed to create the magical experience you did so well with your first ad, you even stooped as low to beleaguer an ever-tired classical song.

What made the first commercial such a massive hit? You created a feeling of wonderment, romanticism, nostalgia, curiosity, and provided everyone with a brief moment of inflection. Not only that, but the visual stimulation of watching thousands upon thousands of rainbow colored super balls bounce up and down in slow motion along the San Francisco hillsides was incredible. You provoked excitement, intrigue, and inspiration for all those that watched.

Why Sony Bravia, have you let us down with your ad, or should I say pathetic excuse for branded entertainment. I waited patiently for this ad to be produced, and now I am in a state of utter disappointment.

Hey! Love the Blog. I found it really interesting how game companies and software manufacturers are letting ads and brands seep into the actual games. I read som articles about this online, including some discussion about it here. But, being a gamer too I recently purchased and started playing splinter cell 4: double agent for the xbox 360 and found nivea for men ads sprinkled throughout. I found the whole thing quite silly at first, I mean this company in particular seems the least likely to have any association with the splinter cell series. They even put a URL in the game ads. www.thegoodside.com. My curiosity got the better of me, so i checked it out. A pretty standard HTML site partnered w/ phillips norelco, showing off both companies products and a splinter cell contest. pretty silly. about a week later while bored at work, i went back to the site and noticed a small icon of a nerdy looking chap in the lowe corner. I thought it was bizarre, i clicked on it, and nothing happened, i started clicking around and realized that the entire site is built in flash. Not sure why, seemed kind of strange to me, then i clicked on the red "X" covering the face of the unshaven disheveled fellow behind the clean shaven model and it all dissolved. I was pulled into what is meant to be an NSA agency web interface. It's kind of campy but ties in really closely with the game. Gives you an opportunity to win a cool prize and has some nice interactivity along with a little "who done it" style mystery game integrated into it. Not a bad move. A cool example of carrying in game ads all the way out of the game and taking it a step further.

I like your posting on Conference usability. I would add, emphatically, that networking can be made MUCH better using badge technology that alerts you when someone you might actually want to meet is near you. I often find myself engaged in conversation with someone not quite in my area of interest, knowing that I'm missing meeting someone I *really* should talk with.

I was at a conference last year where I learned abou nTag. Check it out: http://www.ntag.com/products_services/business_networking.php

Talk about an incredible amount of free pub for the cartoon. The folks at Cartoon Network have to be jumping for joy...their ad gets splattered all over national news and blogs - all in the spirit of making "the man" look foolish, something CN has been doing for years.

To Sergio:Interesting question. Depending on the particular execution, it can be a product placement, a regular media ad buy just like in a magazine, an advergame (which would be closer to experiential, I guess), or it can be a combination of the above. Interactive experiential brand placement, if you wish.

I found your free iPhone post from Google and wanted to give you a little more info. My friend who did one of those "free iPod" signups last year and actually got it, pointed me to this free iPhone site. He has been rubbing his free iPod in my face for a year and I'm not gonna miss out again. I signed up which didn't take long, so I'll let you know what happens.

I've been active in the Second Life game for 3 months now. It's a virtual world worth exploring. Buying stuff, owning land, producing and selling stuff. I’ve built an 8500 sq/m building, lived in the environment just last week, with the online tools that are just one click away. There's always some place new to go, and companies like American Apparel are helping make SL a more interesting place. I love it! Thank you American Apparel! But why are some of your basic clothes so boring? When does Fugoshop enter Sercond Life? - they definately have the hottest American Apparel styles.. Please www.Fugoshop.com come to Second Life soon!!!!

I'm working on a study (university) about the progress of media in "Second Life" and would like to have contact (german, english) to somebody who can tell me a bit about the possibilities. If you can give me some hints, please write to vela68@web.de

honestly, this is amazing. its crazy to the extent which advertisers are willing to go, but i really wonder whether all of these tools and gimicks actually pay off. We all know that goods would be significantly cheaper (say, Nike shoes) if companies did not advertise, dont you think that they would profit more from cutting ad costs? I know branding is important ( http://www.advertisingonlinesite.com/Branding.html that site explains branding pretty well), but is it really worth it? i just dont know.

There is many "charge for call" platforms like "wengo" or bitwine, but they all have own software and not promote Skype Prime. There is site that was build to work with only Skype Prime and no additional software needed. If you are interested please visit http://www.primeskype.com/

See now we have advertisements on Bluetooth.I already receive around 5 to 8 SMSes every day with some marketing stuff. All I need is messages popping up through my bluetooth when ever I walk around. Read more:ADs on Bluetooth

What ever people say its amazing how Colonel Harland Sanders brought KFC to a multi national organization. I saw an article in a blog called http://futureseekers.blogspot.comThere you can find a nice article in the following URL http://futureseekers.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

Various ways to hurt someone (possibly even kill someone) with audio spotlight

Notice how these crimes coexist with "litte" crimes to help hide a semi-expensive murder using audio spotlight, and a gang of people with not much else to do, many trianed in psychology, and acting (computer hacking and spyware too)

1. Point the device out your 2 story window and call people racial names, and make reference to their actual surroundings, and clothing, to make it more realistic. This can be used in and around drug dealers to create violence. An introduction can even be given to a group of street people about another, simply by transmitting "John has on the bergendy jacket" (substitute the victims actual name) to introduce the victim to a pack of well beaten up homless drug addicts. You may increase the probablity of getting this person beat up or even shot. These drug dealers could be angered further by suggesting to them (still pointing it down from window ledges, working in groups, working with cell phones) that each other had found their lost drugs on the ground or stolen their drugs. It may surprise you how easily some of these people are angered in run down homless areas, espiecally when they have been kept all night, by the device in question, if the rooftops, or 2nd story windows are available). Much smaller versions of this are most liekly available, a person could even "hide out" in the bushes and do this to someone, or from a parked car) if they were "skilled" enough, while they slep outside on a parkbench, for example)

2. Pointing at the window. Pointing the device at the window (if you can get a clear and "hard to notice" shot at the window) can keep a person up for weeks at a time (unless they find good enough ear plugs). This can lead to job loss, which in turn can lead you to living in a run down , drug infested area, which can bring you closer to being murdered with audio spotlight.

3. Moving in beside someone - The sound can be cast through holes in the walls. If you really want to kill someone with audio spotlight, and they live in an apartment, you may have an easier time, makeing someones apartment hellish for them with psychological abuse, in front of mirrors and in the bathrooms is a good place to try to break someone with psychological abuse. It is also true that this sound reflects, so if you have a decent scemeatic of the house (upstairs apartment) you can point the sound from the hole (that must be disguised, in many cases) to bouce around "somewhat". video survielance can also be done through the hole, and in turn make the psycholigcal abuse more effective. Hidding the hole is most likely easiest in the corner of the cieling, or behind anything that patrudes out from the wall. All of these variables narrow down the possibility of killing someone with audio spotlight. Meaning never touching them psysically.

4. Taking over the WORKPLACE is very difficult, may involve a break in (or a dress up repairman scam), and a device placed into a high corner, at the right angle for above cubbie hole walls, and possibly discuised as something else, like a "wierd" survielance camera with a radar like back (when their tech is more low tech). Make sure to look in the work place for obvious looking "radar" shapes. In a large "high tech" office, this may just fit in normally and go unnoticed. Often a rumor could be spread through the office about what it was for, but most liely this radar is going to have no owner, and the detachment of it's transmitter, will be an early warning sign for them, becuase the handshaking signal will be broken.

5. Moving violent homelss people to an area (another different run down area) may, sickly enough be accomplishable with a "bread crumbs" trail of drugs, like crack cocaine, and a couple of dress ups, like crack heads, in which the rumor is spread to them that the other "fake homless people" that lived on the other coner or location were always dropping all kinds of crack. This could be even done through a gang member junkie , paid to go do drugs with the more violent junkies, supplying him/her with the drugs to make friends, and lieing to them telling them that there was a reason to move to a location , for example, drugs were found on the ground often there. This would be made real by dropping real drugs, or hits of crack there) to try to coax a set of violent druggies to a certain location, in which the murder victim lived. Then you can execute the audio spotlight crimes.

6. Taking over a speaker in a radio could most liekly fit a version of the "audio spotlight" if shelf speakers were in a room, but were not often used. A an attached radio or stereo could be broken, by a break in, and the audiospotlight "mini" placed into the old speaker.

What will be interesting to see with Home is the initial type of advertiser that enters and how they choose to engage.

If what we've seen with Second Life holds true for Home, simply inserting a banner or placing an advert in-world is unlikely to create much response - advertisers need to understand not only the platform but also how best to leverage their real world brand and translate it into virtual values.